Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Price For Big Breasts

Turkeys and chickens are bred in this country to have big breasts, fat thighs, plump legs - to be, quite frankly, obese.

And to reach that state as quickly as possible, from a traditional 21 weeks down to 7 weeks for chickens:

"Because of genetics, nutrition, and intensification, the modern broiler reaches market weight (1.5 - 2.0 kg) in 7 weeks, a reduction of nearly two thirds from the time it took the traditional broiler."1

To put that into perspective:

"If a seven pound baby grew at the same rate that today's turkeys (and broiler chickens) grow, when the baby reached 18 weeks of age it would weigh 1,500 pounds."2

Still, they're perpetually denied food:

"As a result of such selection, broilers used for breeders must be kept under severe food restriction - they simply convert too efficiently. Since food is such a primordial, inelastic demand, it is likely these animals suffer." 1

Too Big To Stand

There's a price for that fast growth:

"With the breeding of broilers for fast growth and heavy musculature, little attention was paid to bone development and other areas under genetic control. ... Many diseases have resulted. ... They include leg weakness, ascites [fluid buildup in the abdomen], sudden death or "flip-over," deep pectoral myopathy, and right ventricular hypertrophy. Moreover, ... weak legs lead the birds to sit in soiled litter, which in turn produces breast blisters and hock burns, since the fecal material is corrosive."1

"Each year at Thanksgiving, the US president and vice president pardon a turkey and a vice turkey. This is a nice gesture, but after the turkeys are sent to a small farm, within a few months they die from heart attacks or lung collapse because their hearts and lungs can't support the ever increasing bulk."2

If Turkeys Can't Stand, Turkeys Can't Mate

So, humans mate for them:

"Turkeys today grow so fast that they find it impossible to mate naturally. By the time they reach reproductive age they are so obese that they simply cannot get close enough to physically manage. As a result, all 300 million turkeys born annually in the United States are the result of an act of artificial insemination."2

(How, you may wonder, is this done? Suffice it to say that there are people who have become adept at handling male turkeys in just the right way. The procedure is called - with delicacy but without anatomical accuracy - "abdominal massage." After the semen is thus collected, and then mixed with a myriad of chemicals, there are other "experts" whose job it is to inject the material into the females, using an implement that looks, rather ironically, remarkably like a turkey baster.)"2

If you'd like to know more, you can read Jim Mason's account of his job as a turkey inseminator at the Butterball Turkey Company.

There are turkeys that aren't subjected to the above. But as long as the demand for $0.99/lb Thanksgiving turkey remains high, so will, I presume, these practices.

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1 Bernard E. Rollin, "Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues," 2003, p. 133-1342 John Robbins, "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World," 2001, p. 195Photo of George Bush with turkey from official White House site, was accompanied by the caption:

"President George W. Bush offers an official pardon to May, the 2007 Thanksgiving Turkey, during festivities Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007, in the Rose Garden of the White House. In pardoning May, and the alternate, Flower, the President said, "May they live the rest of their lives in blissful gobbling. And may all Americans enjoy a holiday full of love and peace. God bless you all."